“We are so very thankful for Angel One,” says Evan’s mother, Katrin. “Without it, we don’t know if our son would be here today.”

Evan Clubine was born a healthy baby at Willow Creek in Fayetteville.

He stayed in the hospital an extra night due to a little jaundice – and that is when his problems began.

By nightfall, Katrin noticed he was not eating. She had a sense that something was wrong.

The next morning, Evan was diagnosed with unknown heart failure. Evan’s doctor consulted a cardiologist from Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH), who immediately dispatched an Angel One helicopter. Three-day-old Evan was fighting for his life.

"It was the most scared I have ever been," says Katrin. “When we found out Evan’s heart was failing, we were overwhelmed and scared. But when the Angel One team arrived we felt a sense of relief. Seeing them wheel my son away in an incubator was the hardest thing I’ve ever experienced, but we knew he’d receive great care.”

Once at ACH, doctors started working to determine what caused the heart condition. Evan arrived at the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit, where doctors began treatment. Slowly his heart began to improve.

"He went from four valves leaking, to three, then two, then no heart valves leaking within a matter of days,” says Evan’s father, Scott. “It was truly a miracle. The doctors at the hospital were amazing."

“We spent three-and-a-half weeks at ACH and we saw such an improvement in Evan,” Katrin says. “When we left the hospital, he was only taking two medications a day. And now he is down to one.”

Today, Evan has no lasting effects from the heart failure he experienced, but he does make follow-up visits with the ACH cardiology team at the Centers for Children in Lowell.

“It is so nice having an Arkansas Children’s Hospital specialty clinic here in northwest Arkansas,” says Katrin. “It saves us time, money and the hassle of making a six-hour car ride with an infant.”

Your support helps Arkansas Children’s Hospital reach children across the state – children just like Evan. Together, we create a statewide network of care for all Arkansas children.